Timeline: A detailed history of the San Antonio Symphony's financial woes

The San Antonio Symphony performs in the H-E-B Performance Hall during the grand opening of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts Thursday Sept. 4, 2014.

Photo: San Antonio Express-News

1987: Under growing financial pressure, the symphony board attempts to renegotiate the orchestra contract but negotiations sour and the board cancels the season. Angry musicians form the Orchestra San Antonio, which merges with the San Antonio Symphony by the end of the year.

1992: San Antonio Symphony closes the season with debt of $4.7 million. Later that year, Rick Lester, San Antonio Symphony executive director since 1987, resigns.

1994: Symphony board approves mayoral task force suggestion to use $5 million of $6 million endowment to pay off long-term debt. The 65-member board also approved cutting nonorchestra expenses 10 percent over the next two fiscal years.

1998: Facing debt of more than $1.5 million, the symphony board asks for more than $617,000 in wage and benefits concessions from the musicians. The executive director resigns in December.

1999: Two anonymous donors give nearly $1.2 million to the symphony to help stabilize its finances and directly aid its musicians. Symphony later receives anonymous endowment gift of $500,000 to meet the matching requirement for Kronkosky grant.

2000: Symphony ends fiscal year with a projected deficit of $375,000 and another executive director resigns.

2001: Symphony closes season in the black because of last-minute gifts by a couple of individuals and an advance against scheduled future gifts from the Kronkosky Foundation.

2002: Symphony ends season with deficit of about $1 million, negating access to gifts from the Kronkosky Foundation. Later that year, symphony's musicians agree to shorten the number of paid weeks, cut base salaries and kill the musician's pension contribution for two years.

2003: Symphony closes season a month early and files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In October, musicians and management agree to a four-year contract with a minimum of 26 weeks of performances. The fourth executive director since the 1987 rebirth resigns.

2004: Symphony officials announce the appointment of Bruce Johnson, with the new title of president/CEO. Johnson leads symphony between February and November 2004

2005: Symphony is in the black after SBC Foundation gives $250,000 to teach symphony executives how to run their nonprofit organizations like businesses. 2006: David Green, a veteran beverage industry executive, is appointed symphony's president and chief executive officer.

2007: Venue-tax panel tours Municipal Auditorium to see if it can be renovated into a world-class performing arts center (and future home for the symphony). Spoiler alert: It can and it is.

2008: AT&T, corporate parent of the foundation that long supported the symphony, relocates to Dallas. Green also leaves and Jack Fishman, executive director of the Long Beach Symphony, accepts the CEO position.

2010: Bringing a three-year search to an end, the symphony announces that German conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing will become the organization's eighth music director.

2011: Symphony ends its season with a $750,000 debt, even though the musicians agreed to pay cuts partway through each of the past three seasons.

Oct. 2, 2012: Although the 2011-12 season ends with the symphony $100,000 in debt, 2012-2013 begins on a more hopeful note when a three-year contract is ratified by orchestra members.

Nov. 28, 2012: President and CEO Jack Fishman resigns suddenly.

May 1, 2013: Local businessman and fundraising consultant Jack Downey, a retired U.S. Air Force officer, is named president and CEO of the San Antonio Symphony in May. He is out in less than three months after a budget dispute with the board chairman.

Sept. 10, 2013: The symphony suspends its search for a permanent president and CEO and hires David Gross, former West Virginia Symphony Orchestra's president and CEO, to be general manager. He is later named president.

Jan. 6, 2014: The symphony declares a 2012-13 budget surplus of $60,000 - even though it used $503,000 in advance ticket sales for the next concert season to finish paying for the budget year that ended Aug. 31.

Sept. 4, 2014: The state-of-the-art $203 million Tobin Center for the Performing Arts opens in September and becomes the new home of the San Antonio Symphony.

June 5, 2015: Symphony reaches contract agreement with its musicians' union. It's the first time in at least four decades that a new contract was approved before the current season ended.

Jan. 5, 2016: The Express-News reports on a conflict between the symphony and the Tobin Center over increased costs to the symphony since the move. Symphony President David Gross states the dispute is settled and that there was a net financial gain for the symphony.

April 29, 2016: With the San Antonio Symphony facing $1.2 million in debt during its second season in the Tobin Center, the city, county and three foundations agree to provide $500,000 in elevated annual-fund giving over a three-year period. In exchange, the symphony board agrees to raise $100,000 on its own and change financial practices in an effort to avoid future deficits. The symphony musicians and senior staff have agreed to 10 percent pay cuts during the 2016-17 season to help balance the season's budget if money cannot be raised in time to offset the season's projected deficit.

Feb. 14, 2017: Computer hackers broke into the computer network for the San Antonio Symphony this week, stealing the names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, addresses and W-2 tax forms for about 250 employees.

April 13, 2017: For the first time since the 1960s, the San Antonio Symphony will not provide live music for a San Antonio production of the ballet "The Nutcracker." More than three months of negotiations between the symphony and Ballet San Antonio to do so recently broke down over cost.

April 28, 2017: Symphony donors negotiate a debt reduction plan in the aim to help the struggling symphony's finances.

May 8, 2017: The San Antonio Symphony board holds a special meeting with donors to discuss the state of their finances.

July 19, 2017: The Symphonic Music for San Antonio, a newly created nonprofit led by Tobin Endowment Chairman J. Bruce Bugg, H-E-B's governmental and public affairs director, Dya Campos and J. Tullos Wells, managing director of the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation, will take over operations of the San Antonio Symphony."

Aug. 24, 2017: Symphony musicians agree to a contract extension with the San Antonio Symphony Society through the end of the year. A new nonprofit, Symphonic Music for San Antonio, will take over the symphony for the next season."

Dec. 28, 2017: After discovering a possible $8.9 million pension liability, donors set to take over operations of the symphony decide to back out of deal.

Jan. 3, 2018: After a 5 1/2-hour meeting, the symphony board decides to suspend operations of the orchestra at midnight Jan. 7, citing a cost of $2.5 million to finish the 2017-18 season. The final concerts would be the Jan. 5-6 Tricentennial Celebration performances featuring music by Spanish composers, honoring San Antonio's Hispanic heritage during the city's 300th year. Board chairwoman Dr. Alice Viroslav said, "We would not be able to raise that much money in such an abbreviated time."

Jan. 4, 2018: San Antonio Symphony board chairwoman Dr. Alice Viroslav resigns. She is replaced by vice-chairwoman Kathleen Weir Vale, who is CEO of Hope Medical Supply. It remained unclear what role the replacement board of the Symphonic Society of San Antonio continued to play in daily operations.

Jan. 5, 2018: New board chairwoman Kathleen Vale calls a meeting of current and past board members of the Symphony Society of San Antonio to gauge support and map paths to move forward. Following the meeting, she reports the symphony is without debt and that new funding had been pledged to resurrect at least part of the remaining season, but declines to identify the sources of new funding. The orchestra performs the first of the Tricentennial Celebration concerts, attended by about 1,120 people.

Jan. 6, 2018: Board chairwoman Kathleen Vale says the symphony had received $400,000 in verbal pledges. At the second Tricentennial Celebration concert, Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff spoke words of support for a major orchestra in the city to a near-capacity audience of almost 1,450 people at the Tobin Center. The City of San Antonio, which awarded the symphony $614,000 for the 2017-18 season through its public funding process, still held about $350,000 that would be available to the orchestra for concerts this winter and spring.